


Colors 2.

by Bacner



Series: Colors of S.H.I.E.L.D. [2]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Avengers (Marvel Movies), MCU, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Avengers - Freeform, F/M, Family, Gen, Inhumans (Marvel), S.H.I.E.L.D., Team Bus - Freeform, White Color, apology, black color, blue color, friendships, green color, red color, relationships, spoilers for the official series, yellow color
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-07
Updated: 2019-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-07 06:34:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21708643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bacner/pseuds/Bacner
Summary: Sequel to Colors. Team Bus is on a new mission, so why do Hawkeye and Black Widow come over to say hi so regularly?
Relationships: Clint Barton & Natasha Romanoff (friendship), Clint Barton/Laura Barton, Grant Ward & Jemma Simmons (friendship), Grant Ward/Skye|Daisy Johnson, Leo Fitz & Melinda May (friendship), Leo Fitz/Jemma Simmons, Phil Coulson & SKye|Daisy Johnson (family), Phil Coulson/Melinda May
Series: Colors of S.H.I.E.L.D. [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1564630
Kudos: 8





	1. Of Black and Green

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lila_luscious1](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lila_luscious1/gifts), [Patty_Parker60](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Patty_Parker60/gifts).

> Disclaimer: all characters aren't mine at all.

Melinda could not sleep. Well, not literally – this was a post-Bahrain hurdle that she did get over with, but the next best thing. As it usually happened to her, whenever she went to sleep, she went down the memory lane, and it was not even recent events – those were tolerable at worst and okay at best, she could admit that now – but events from much earlier times in her life. Usually they were centered on Bahrain, of course, but tonight it was even earlier than that: she and Coulson were graduating from the Academy, she was in a working relationship with Andrew for a change, and everything was so bright and happy and-

-And Melinda could not sleep. Those memories – stung. Yes, after recent events, when she and Coulson and Skye and few others had their showdown that was not, when they cleared the air – and not just literally, the FitzSimmons’ equipment could smoke a lot – things have eased up somewhat. …Okay, they eased quite a bit, actually, and that… scared Melinda on so many levels. Because if her ghosts, her issues, her everything could be eased-up by just some honest talks and epiphanies and amateur breakthroughs, what did it tell about her? What kind of person she was? She was the Cavalry, but what kind of person the Cavalry was? And what kind of value did her life have? Those were deep philosophical discussions, ones that Melinda should be really discussing with her therapist, not musing just to herself even as she entered the Bus’s kitchen…only to discover that the light was already lit there, and Leo Fitz – agent Leo Fitz, really, but everyone on the bus was an agent of some sort or another, even Skye these days – was sitting there, having a late night snack.

“Oh, hello May!” he spoke in an adorable high-pitched voice, but then again, he – and Jemma Simmons – were quite adorable in all of their aspects, cough. Not that Melinda cared about such sort of thing, really, but-

“What are you doing here?” she asked instead, trying to get her mental gears back into their proper alignment and order. Considering that even on their own, both of the FitzSimmons were quite – chaotic, this probably was not quite easy, and Melinda was not quite sure that she would succeed. Grant could help, but the younger man – the other younger man considering Fitz was a younger man himself – came with his own issues, and while Melinda was not minding it on some level… right.

“And where are you going?” she asked agent Fitz as the latter began to sidle out of the Bus’s kitchen. 

“…Uh you seem to have a lot on your mind so I thought that I would leave?” Fitz asked, trying his best to sound and look adorable. He even fluttered his eyelashes, which just was not right.

Melinda grimaced. “Let’s try again. Why you’re here in the first place?”

“I’m hungry,” Fitz admitted, “So I thought that I would get a late snack-“

“It’s one in the morning-“

“So-?”

Melinda gave Fitz a very suspicious look. “Oh, come on!” Fitz snapped. “It’s bad enough that Jemma is back on her kick – that I was the sexy one in our relationship back in the Academy, but if you’ll join-in-" Melinda shot him a look “Don’t give me that!” Fitz snapped, even as he moved to position a couple of chairs between them. “Why aren’t you asleep-“

“I have insomnia.”

“Oh.” The to-the-point reply of Melinda had caught the younger agent flat-footed but not very much. “Okay. Well, after Jemma wakes-up I’ll tell her that and we’ll figure out what medicine to give you for that- what?”

“Nothing,” Melinda shook her head. “Sorry. I kind of forgot that you’re a competent agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. in your own right.”

“Yeah, I and Simmons get this a lot,” Leo sighed. “For Grant, though, it took a trip – I mean a mission for Victoria Hand – to begin to realize this. If it does not take a mission for you to realize this, I would be grateful… not that I got anything against field missions, but-“

“You just don’t like field as much as you like the lab,” Melinda said gently as she sat down onto another chair. “Right, agent Fitz?”

“Um, Hawkeye and the Black Widow are behind you-“

“Really? What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be with the rest of the Avengers instead, fighting whatever Abyssal horror that is threatening the rest of the world?” Melinda sighed as she eyed the younger woman and Hawkeye without expressing any surprise or other emotion at being actually caught flat-footed. “Also, we got Greek food in the fridge. Want some?”

There was a pause. “So, just for the record,” the Black Widow said carefully, “but did you send me the apology-“

“Yes, I did,” Melinda said sourly. “What’s with the personal response?”

“I’m sorry, but what are you two talking about?” Fitz piped up.

“Some time after my misadventure in Bahrain,” Melinda said simply, “and before Stark and Fury began to work-out the Avengers initiative, Romanoff was working with a woman named Patricia Knight, who was sort of an asset to S.H.I.E.L.D., I suppose. It did not work so well, she died, and when Romanoff tried to talk me out of my Bahrain-based funk, I lashed out at her regarding Ms. Knight’s death, and things never got fixed afterwards.”

“And now you’re just writing a letter to make it all okay?”

“No, it’s just that some time ago – before the big black-out and Hydra revelation and what else have you, me and agent Fitz over there and the rest of our teammates had a bit of impromptu group therapy and I had an epiphany of my own and so I wrote you this letter to apologize to you. You were trying to help and I hit you in one of your actual sore spots,” Melinda exhaled. “So, uh, yeah – this is it?”

The Black Widow stared at the shorter woman. “What?” the latter actually sounded uncomfortable. “Why did you bring agent Barton with you anyhow-“

“This is a completely different situation,” the archer said brightly. “See, you remember the big mess with the Hydra agents and Jasper Sitwell, and Alexander Pierce and so on?”

“Yeah-?” Melinda and Fitz said carefully.

FLASHBACK!

“Calusky,” Clint and Natasha were carefully corner the bigger and stronger agent – or ex-agent, if you were going by S.H.I.E.L.D. rather than Hydra standards, (though right now, there was a lot of confusion between the two). “Drop the scientist and surrender!”

“No!” Calusky – big, blond, and while nowhere as formidable as Rumlow, (and this was why Rumlow was the leader of the S.T.R.I.K.E. team and Calusky was not) – but still beefy enough to give his captive some real pains howled. “I’m not listening to you! You cannot make me! I got a hostage!”

There was a pause as Hawkeye and the Black Widow looked at each other, silently arguing as to which one of them will end the yelling idiot, when someone else appeared on the scene. The woman was tall, swarthy from the sun, with hair so dark that it just had to be dyed and dressed in tall boots and a body suit that was just too tight and too revealing to make her anything but someone’s pin-up version of a supervillain – but the fact that she was levitating and energy of some sort crackled around her fists suggested that she was quite real and very serious. 

The newcomer looked at Calusky and positioned one of her hands, aiming at him in a gun-like gesture. There was a moment of confusion, and a zap, and when it was all cleared, the hostage was unharmed, Calusky was down for the count (and no one cared about him that much), and the woman was facing the two Avengers instead.

“You’re so lucky that the good doctor helped me out in my time of need and I had to repay her,” she told Hawkeye. “Because otherwise? I would be going after you, no matter how interesting this time line is becoming!”

“Really? And who are you?” Hawkeye asked carefully, even as the Black Widow was shifting to take a shot.

“Call me Kang the Conqueror,” the woman smiled, “and agent Romanoff? Next time you try to do this, you will die by being aged into dust. See you around!” and with a flare of light she was gone.

FLASHFORWARD!

“Boy, did we miss a lot!” Fitz whistled to the Cavalry as the other couple finished their story. “All we encountered were some average Hydra soldiers, who were mowed down with nary an effort… and Melinda seems to be recognizing someone in your story?”

“Yes, Dr. Alexandra,” Melinda nodded simply. “She’s one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s therapists. Her doctorate is in therapy, actually, but she has another one – in plastic surgery.” The other three stared, because plastic surgery usually was not one of those things that are usually associated with S.H.I.E.L.D. “Most of her patients – her therapy patients – are in various sexual minorities, I’m not sure about her plastic surgery ones. A very well connected woman with the others in medical fields, you know. Maybe you should look outside S.H.I.E.L.D. to see if this Kang comes up?”

“I don’t know, this person feels like a time traveler of some sort and they aren’t easy to pin down,” Natasha muttered.

“Person?” Melinda raised an eyebrow.

“I’ll try to ask this Kang some personal questions if I get the chance,” the Black Widow muttered, “for I have my suspicions, and Melinda?”

“Yes? Thanks for help and for apology. It reminds me a bit of Grant Ward-“

“He’s also on our team,” Fitz commented idly.

“Interesting,” Hawkeye muttered. “Is that why you look familiar?”

“No, this is probably because Simmons and I gave you that colonoscopy in S.H.I.E.L.D.’s medical theatre back when she and I were still cadets,” Fitz shook his head. “Remember, it involved robots?”

Hawkeye blanched. “Jemma still has photos of your body parts and we’re still selling copies of them,” Fitz continued conversationally, “so this is why I look familiar to you.”

Hawkeye hit his head against the tabletop as he began to whimper. “And on this notice, we’ll take our leave,” Natasha said brightly. “This is what I miss in the Avengers – this sort of easy camaraderie.” Hawkeye muttered something in Hungarian against the tabletop. “Yes, let’s go with that,” Natasha continued as she pulled him back upwards. “Cavalry, agent Fitz? Nice to meet you again.”

“Where are you going?” Fitz blinked. “I mean, we are in Africa right now and all-“

“Don’t worry, we got our own ride,” the Black Widow smiled kindly. “See you around!” And she and Hawkeye were gone.

Fitz and Melinda exchanged looks. “Did they tell us that this was classified information?” the Cavalry asked the other agent.

“No?” Fitz answered with his own question.

“Good! Then we can talk to Coulson and the others freely-“

“We probably should’ve told them that Coulson is alive to begin with-“ Fitz began shakily, when the Cavalry just faced-palmed. “Ah, I see.”

Melinda began to reply, when sun’s first rays broke through the Bus’s windows – it was morning already and a new day was beginning.

_TBC_


	2. Of Yellow and Blue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clint tries to have a showdown with Grant - it doesn't really work. Meanwhile, what's up with Skye?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: all characters belong to Marvel.

Grant Douglas Ward was feeling neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, neither sated nor empty; he just wanted to sit in one spot and state into space, aka the wild blue yonder, blissfully unaffected by anything or anyone else.

“Skye can be that exhaustive, hah?” Jemma Simmons asked helpfully, as she carefully, cautiously, approached the bigger agent. “Leo is the same way-“

“Nice new hairclip,” Grant replied idly, pointedly not looking at the field scientist. “What kind of gem is it?”

“It’s an amethyst…and stop showing off. I’m not Skye-!”

“I know you’re not, so why are you here?” Grant said crossly. “Do you want to drag me off to explore some cave too?”

Simmons winced. “Yes, that probably wasn’t the best idea that Skye had had,” she admitted as she decidedly sat down across the table, away from Ward. “But, hey, you know Skye – how do you think that she was going to react once she learned that there was a cave to explore?” She raised an eyebrow to further enforce her point. 

Ward was silent for an oddly long time, considering that the question was straightforward and simple, (especially by the FitzSimmons’ standards). “Maybe you’re right,” he said finally, “plus I admit that I didn’t really object to Skye having an adventure. Why are you here? Back then, You and Fitz hanged largely in the background, with the emphasis on ‘you’.”

“Yes, and Fitz had a lot to say about this,” Jemma grimaced.

“I thought that he usually deferred to you-?”

“Yes, but he gave me this very nice hairclip as you can see…” Jemma grimaced. “Yes, Leo and I need to talk about our relationship, a lot-“

“Is that a metaphor? Or a euphemism? Or whatever it’s properly called?”

“No, the FitzSimmons work wonderfully together, but as a couple – like, say, you and Laura,” Ward sighed as he addressed the speaker who asked the questions – aka Hawkeye or agent Clint Barton. “Romanoff, hello. Barton – what’s your problem this time?”

There was a pause as the Russian redhead began to giggle and the archer just stared at the other man looking very, very angry. “You! You knew!” he spat out finally, his somewhat good humor from earlier time vanishing immediately. “You knew!”

“I know quite a few things,” Grant replied back, an odd look on his own face, an odd light in his own eyes. “Romanoff, can you please specify what your friend wants to talk about precisely? ‘Cause elf of Gondolin and of Norgothrond, will quiver, when Balrog will go to war and all that.”

There was a pause as the two men just stared at each other, eye to eye. “You know,” Barton said finally. “I’m an Avenger. We are saving the world-“

“Barton,” Oddly, Grant sounded sad here rather than confrontational. “I’ve spent the better part of yesterday guiding my- established rookie and a couple of field scientists through a local cave system. It was fun, but also somewhat draining, so I am not really want to pretend or even have your kind of human interaction. And second, you see agent Simmons over here, yes?”

“Yeah,” Barton nodded. “Why?”

“You’ve met agent Fitz earlier, yes? Well, she’s his other half.”

“…You were the second agent who gave me that colonoscopy back in the Academy,” Barton groaned, “weren’t you?”

“We did more than just colonoscopy – we did a full scan!” Simmons replied half-happily and half-proudly. “You may not be like captain Rogers, because no one is like captain Rogers, but are still classically proportioned and very attractive!”

Barton just face-palmed and remained like this, frozen now about as much as Ward was, albeit in a different poise, a different position and for a different reason. 

“…In other news, Ward here is like a T-1000,” Simmons continued just as brightly. “I.e., he can do regular, ordinary human interactions but they don’t come naturally to him, he genuinely needs to undertake an effort to do them, and every once in a while he is too tired to do this sort of an effort and it shows. So, uh, agent Barton, agent Romanoff, what’s up?” she fluttered her eyelashes for extra emphasis.

“Kid, you’re adorable,” Romanoff rolled her eyes, “also, nice gift. Whose is it?”

“Leo’s,” Simmons said happily. “You like it?”

“Yes,” Romanoff nodded, before switching her attention back to Grant. “You aren’t going to deny her T-1000 moniker for you?”

“No,” Grant pinched his nose. “I don’t like it, but I’m fairly sure that I cannot change it for anything better, and I still believe that you’re here with a purpose-“

“We’re here because of Laura,” Clint said flatly.

There was a pause as the other man thought this over. “I’m not going to advise to ask Mockingbird for this sort of a discussion, because it’ll make ours look civil,” Grant said flatly, “but maybe one of Laura’s other friends? Agent 33, maybe?”

“She addressed us to you,” Clint said flatly. “So. Before she joined S.H.I.E.L.D., and for a while after, Laura was known as Giuletta Nefaria-“

“Yes,” Grant nodded. “We thought that she told you when you two got married-“

“Yes,” Barton winced. “Did you also known that her other moniker, the Madame Masque one, came from the yellow mask before she worshiped the King in Yellow?”

“Yes, and she didn’t tell you that, did she?” Grant sighed. “Uh- sorry? She told us all that she would come clean once you two got married-?”

“She did, eventually,” Clint muttered, “but-“

“But it hurts because you love her?” Grant muttered quietly.

“Yes,” Clint muttered back. “Wait, what?”

Before anyone else present could reply, a screen rose from the Bus’s conference table, implying that someone on the other end wanted to talk. “Yes?” Simmons spoke first, before seeing that Laura Barton was on the other end. “Excuse me, Hawkeye? It’s for you.”

…And alongside Ward and Romanoff, she quickly left the room.

/ / /

“Well, this was fun – not,” the Black Widow in question muttered, as she certainly was not volunteering to be her best friend’s wing-woman this time. “Now, about the actual reason as to why me and Hawkeye have come here-“

“Good point, that,” spoke someone else, as another woman, wearing a pantsuit, a subdued one, rather than a revealing leotard, approached the trio. “Is agent Skye okay? Never cared for her much personally, but I must admit – she’s good people and deserves better than what she had in the main timeline.” She paused and added, brightly, in a somewhat familiar manner: “Hey! I’m Kang!”

“Yes, I told about you to agents Melinda and Fitz and they told the rest of the team, right?” Romanoff eyed the other person, even as she asked her coworkers instead.

“Yes, and, uh, Kang? Agent Romanoff wonders if you are gender-fluid,” Ward replied placidly.

“I’m a transsexual person,” Kang snapped, her eyes flashing, “So don’t any of you confuse it, understood?”

“Ah, I thought so,” Romanoff sounded almost happy here, oddly. “You look marvelous, but your voice, while also very good, is something else!”

There was an awkward pause. “Are you a transphobe?” Kang muttered, as she rolled back her sleeves, and energy began to crackle around her.

“No, but agent Romanoff is a super-spy and assassin, and as such, she’s a super-empathic person,” Grant was clearly on a roll here. “Getting into other people in a non-sexual way is what she does. She doesn’t do sexual minorities very often though, which is why she’s somewhat flat-footed here and now.”

“…I am not super-emphatic!” Natasha glared at him. “I’m a spy and an assassin, as you’ve said-“

“Maybe as an agent, but as a person? You’re a very caring and kind one,” Simmons shook her head. “Believe me, a cousin of mine knows you, and for a while she wanted to be like you, but because she’s nothing like you, she failed.”

Romanoff just stared at both her and Ward, trying to kill them with her mind. Sadly, this was one way of killing people that was not natural for her, so both of the other agents remained alive.

“As much as I would love to stay and observe this S.H.I.E.L.D. friendship-bonding ritual,” Kang’s voice sounded odd, as if she was not entirely sarcastic here, “I have better things to do right now. So is agent Skye okay? Just answer it and I will move on-“

“Maybe we would love for you to stay,” Romanoff snapped back. “Listen, you make a very convincing super-villain-“

“-I can give you bladder control of an eighty-year-old-“

“-but that wouldn’t make you a supervillain,” Romanoff shook her head. “Why do you care about agent Skye-?”

“I don’t,” Kang rolled her eyes, “but she is always important in any timeline of S.H.I.E.L.D., and this one is shaping to be much better than any of the more standard ones, including all of you,” she shot the three agents a look. “It would suck if she died or suffered otherwise, because the standard timelines suck, even for you,” she looked at Jemma. 

There was a pause. “Well?”

“She’s fine, more or less,” Jemma muttered, reluctantly. “Her nervous system was seriously restructured, she has a differently shaped brain right now, and she’s a nervous wreck, but she isn’t literally hurt otherwise. Plus the soporifics helped.” She shot Kang a look. “Since you care, want to tell us as to what was that?”

“Terrigenesis,” the reply was dry, a matter-of-fact. “It is a part of her destiny – an unavoidable part. Otherwise, her destiny is mostly fluid, but some things? She just always checks them off, such as this one…” Kang trailed away and stared at Ward. “Listen, your sister’s right, you make your own destiny, and nothing can change it, but try to include agent Skye in it, would you? It is a compromise, true, but it can be something good if you two put an effort in it…”

Grant gave the time-traveler would-be supervillain a look. “And yes, I know that I’m threatening a T-1000 here, which is never particularly wise, but regardless,” the latter shook her head. “Glad to hear that she has passed through the first hurdle of her metamorphose. And remember – she is not a T-1000, she needs help of others to flourish. See you all around!” There was a flare of energy, and Kang vanished.

“…I think that you’ve scared-off a time-travelling super-villain wannabe,” Romanoff muttered. 

“Sorry,” Grant sounded authentically apologetic here, “but, well, yes – Skye is someone else…” he turned red and looked away.

“Aw,” both of the female agents spoke in unison, when the door opened, and a rather flushed and embarrassed Hawkeye emerged into the corridor:

“So, what did I miss?” he asked brightly.

“Long story,” Romanoff replied, “come on, I’ll tell you on the way back to the base. See you all around!” and she and Clint left.

Grant and Jemma exchanged looks. “We owe her one,” the former said reluctantly. “Maybe Barton too – half of one.”

“Why do you and Barton don’t get along?” Jemma muttered as she and Grant began to move towards the Bus’s recovery room to check up on Skye.

“It’s a manly thing,” Grant shrugged. “Any ideas on what should I gift Skye – just because?”

“Well,” Jemma smiled both shyly and slyly. “I actually have an idea…”

_TBC_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We never really learned about Laura Barton's backstory, so here's my take on it, BTW.


	3. Of White and Red

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Coulson's birthday. Hooray! And some of the Avengers are also here - wait, what?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: see previous chapters.

The day was turning out to be rainy, overcast, but overall a warm one. Normally, Coulson liked warmth, but today was a day when nothing was going right, and that was just sad. Coulson was a very adaptable and adroit person; he could literally turn on a metaphorical dime and work an entirely new approach to the altered problem, but-

-But right now, he did not. Right now, there was no problem. It was actually his birthday, and, um-

“Hey, AC!” Skye called out brightly as she peeked through the doorway in a rather FitzSimmons-like manner. “How are you handling things?”

“Fine, Skye,” Coulson replied faux-brightly, (and in a rather Skye-like manner, cough). “Why are you here?”

“’Cause we worry about you and drew straws, and while I’m sure that Melinda would be the better woman to get you in the mood, I got the long one?” Skye did not back down. “How are you feeling?” she paused. “How are you handling – everything?”

Coulson gave her a good long look. “You know,” he said sourly, “I don’t have a midlife crisis and don’t need to be handled like this-“

“Yeah, the answer to this question is both yes and no,” Skye replied brightly, as she sat down next to her father figure, (because let us be honest, that is what Coulson was to her, in _any _timeline). “You don’t really need it, but somehow – you kind of want it.”

“I don’t,” Coulson snapped, before collecting himself. “I mean, I’m sorry, but I really don’t-“

“Yeah, you kind of do,” Skye did not back down, though she did not appear to be too happy arguing with Coulson herself. “Both you and Ward do, actually. You two are very different people, yes, but both would rather help, and take care of, other people, than of yourselves…” she looked away. “Right. Anyhow. Sorry that you have missed on our latest marvelous adventure and all-“

“Skye, no,” Coulson winced. “I would rather be alone-“

“Yes, and brood,” Skye muttered. “Seriously, do you people get it from Fury?”

“That’s director Fury, young lady, and he doesn’t brood. He just got this mien, this god-like mien, and-“

Coulson did not finish as the door to his room – yes, he was currently in his own room on the Bus, looking for some privacy, though Skye clearly didn’t understood it… right. Where was he?

Well, still in his room, still sitting on his bunk albeit now he was being shaken by his collar by Hawkeye, who really should not be there, but be elsewhere, really, because he was an Avenger these days, you know?

“You, you, you, why didn’t you tell me that you were alive all this time?” Coulson’s surrogate son, (because this was what Hawkeye was to him, frankly, in any timeline), asked even as he shook Coulson by the collar of his suit.

“Because Fury? He meddled,” Skye suggested helpfully, as she eyed the older S.H.I.E.L.D. agent warily, but unwilling to interfere just yet.

“Of course he meddled! He’s Fury, that’s what he does!” Barton shouted in unnecessarily loud voice in a rather small space. “And you – can you leave?”

“No,” Skye crossed her eyes, wrinkled her nose and stuck her tongue out – slightly, causing Hawkeye to actually stop shouting. “Is he always like that?” she asked Natasha in a more mature way. 

…Natasha was actually there, leaning across the doorway, doing her best to be the mature one here herself. “No,” she finally reached a decision, “you’re just seeing him at his worse – when he’s less mature than Tony Stark.” She paused and eyed Skye. “That said, I would really ask you to leave – they really need to talk-“

“I don’t know,” Skye was not as confident now, but she still dug in her heels. “AC is already kind of a mess emotionally because it’s his birthday and all, and have you even got him a present?”

“Yes,” Natasha said without batting an eyelash. “We did, though if we knew that Phil alive all this time begin with, it would’ve been helpful.” She paused. “Instead, Barton tried to channel his own inner S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, and it’s something else, I can promise you.”

“Sorry,” Skye muttered as she quietly got-up. “Well, now that he seems to have calmed-down some, maybe we can leave him and AC alone, though does he have to be so angry?” She paused. “Why is he so angry about anyhow, aside from the obvious?”

“We kind of got involved with S.H.I.E.L.D.’s history slightly deeper, on a somewhat more personal level than we’ve intended,” Natasha nodded, as she and Skye began to carefully leave the two men on their own. “Not fun… only it’s somewhat is. Better than the Red Room was, at any rate.”

“S.H.I.E.L.D. hasn’t had conflicted with those people lately, has it?” Skye did her best to keep the conversation going.

“You’re thinking of Department X, here,” Natasha began, “and no, fortunately, we haven’t seen any indication that they’re meddling… crap. Kang is here.”

“Really? I imagined her taller,” Skye blinked, as the person in question stomped through the Bus’s corridors, even if she was wearing high heels of all things.

“You!” she bellowed in her unmistakable voice, as she walked up to Hawkeye, who was still holding onto Coulson and grabbed him in her turn. “I thought that I warned you not to try to meddle in my past?!” she shouted in her unmistakable voice. “What do I have to do to get the message across? Beat you up or something?” Pause. “I can’t believe that I’m saying this – what have you reduced me to?? I’m Kang, the Conqueror-”

“Yeah, about that,” clearly, it was turning into some sort of a mess, with ‘it’ being Coulson’s life: this time, the speaker in question was Tony Stark, flanked by several people, including Laura Barton and ‘the next generation’, cough. “Ms., or Mrs., or whatever your name is – hello, Phil-“

“Hello, Tony,” Coulson easily freed himself from Clint’s grasp, (which, admittedly, had slacked a bit), stood up and joined Skye. “Laura, children-“

“I’m Cooper and this is Lila,” the elder boy said brightly, “and the baby’s Nathaniel – it’s a lousy name, and we know it!”

“Yes, well, we wanted a girl,” Laura shot a look at her eldest’s antics, “but that didn’t happen, and now, young lady,” she shot Kang a look, who’s been eyeing the assembled Avengers with a calculating look, but not an overly worried one, “can you let my husband go? He’s got his flaws, I know, but-“

Kang snorted, but let Hawkeye go.

“Good, and now-“

“And now I ensured that you survive my childbirth this time around, because when you don’t, it’s bad for everyone, so how about no more wishes granted for now?” Kang snapped.

“Ah,” Natasha said, before anyone could, “this is you, isn’t it?” she pointed at the baby Nathaniel in question. 

“Yes,” Kang pursed her lips and gave Laura a rather hostile look. “And I’m not going back. This is who I am-“

“Oh dear,” Laura sighed. She handed the baby over to Stark – and you could almost see sparks coming out of his ears – he had no idea what to do with babies yet (cough Morgan Stark cough) – and walked over to Kang…before grabbing her by an ear. That said, it should be pointed that Hawkeye got grabbed by his wife much harder, and not by an ear either:

“Laura!” he howled. “Not in public-!”

“Excuse me, but the three of us need to talk,” Laura continued serenely. “Children, can you please keep everything down to a dull uproar, please?” and she led Kang and Hawkeye into Bus’s conference chamber, closing the door behind her.

“Now what?” the remaining Bartons looked at the remaining grown-ups. 

“Well, kids, this is your honorary grandpa Coulson, and today is his birthday, so you’re a part of it,” Grant Ward spoke from behind the others, flanked by the rest of Bus team.

The elder Barton children exchanged looks that were much happier than the ones before. “Really?” they said, sounding happier than how they did before. “Yay!”

There was another pause as the grown-ups just stared down at them.

“So, uh, are you single?” Lily Barton asked Coulson curiously.

“Oh no, I’m with Melinda here,” Coulson reached out and grabbed the woman in question. The look that she gave Coulson was decidedly unamused, but what she said instead was:

“So, children, hello!” she said in an exaggerated brightness of a grown-up, who has to deal with children for the first time in a long while, and who has no idea as to how to deal with them. “You want to go downstairs where the party is going to be now? There’s board games and party favors, and we may even end up pinning the tail on grandpa Coulson here!”

Coulson blanched.

The elder Barton children said “Yay!” and raced each other downstairs. 

Stark opened his mouth. The others – including the Black Widow - looked at him. “Don’t give me that,” he shot back. “I’m the Bartons’ ride from here, you know! Now shall we party?!”

There was a pause in the air as the others just looked at him.

“Yes, let’s,” Melinda muttered, eyeing how Skye had carefully sidled over to Grant’s side in all the commotion, “and maybe even talk about where we’re going from here-?”

..And, actually, this was what they did – but that was another story.

End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nathaniel was the baby that Laura Barton was pregnant with in the 'Age of Ultron' movie. Here's my take on what will happen to him... eventually.

**Author's Note:**

> Colusky is a secondary villain named Piledriver in Marvel comics, he hasn't appeared in MCU yet, so he is free to be interpreted.
> 
> Kang the Conqueror hasn't appeared in MCU either, so I'm putting my spin on this character once more.
> 
> Patricia Knight was Killmonger's love interest in 'Black Panther Kilmonger' comic; he killed her, but she's still a part of Marvel so I mentioned her.


End file.
